Billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik plots London mega-float for ‘Da Zone’
Billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik is planning to list his broadcasting service on the London Stock Exchange in a move that would value the company at £3bn.
Blavatnik, the owner of Warner Music whose company DAZN – pronounced Da Zone – has been dubbed the "Netflix of sport", is drawing up options for a London float either this year or next year, the Mail on Sunday reported.
DAZN is also selling its Perform Content division, which provides sports data, news and video to the world’s leading broadcasters, digital companies and sports books, in a prelude to DAZN's float.
DAZN was previously known as Perform Group before it was rebranded last year. DAZN is a subscription service that allows users access to live and on-demand streaming of sports events such as football, basketball and ice hockey. It has quickly become one of the most popular sports streaming services but it is currently only available in the United States, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland Japan and Canada. It is due to launch in Spain and Brazil later this year.
The newspaper also reported that DAZN was considering a flotation in the US due to increased demand for its boxing coverage.